Upstairs was larger and Stellar was going full force. They reminded me of "Alex Lloyd" a little. Mass over production for not much. The songs sounded good but there is no way they'd get stuck in my head, even if I tried. Actually, in that respect they're nothing like Alex Lloyd at all. Anyway. They were good.. but they sucked.
Pre_Shrunk finally came on stage about 11:30 after Heath and I had dined on Twisties and Samboy chips. The guys looked darn happy to be there and opened with the mellow Pollen and dived straight into the ever popular JJJ tainted Soundpimp. The crowd was your average pub crowd, lots of stand arounders, lots of dances spotted into between and the huge overall feeling of being in everyone's way. Still, we managed to find a good spot and with the help of earplugs the sound was fantastic.
Surprisingly (and more commonly recently) they played Accelerate, their 10 to 15 minute dance epic, second. Not as tight as usual but still managing to blow my friend away.
It really is fun to see someone who has never seen a band before be blown away by every song they hear. To see them be impressed by all aspects of the band, from their pop jems to their danceathons to the heavy mentalness, and at the end of every song smile and give a thumbs up. Makes me feel like I'm not a moron for liking this band, and think the rest of the world is a moron for not. Why arn't pre_shrunk in the top ten instead of Killing fucking Heidi? Because they don't have their pop jem. That one killer song that will bring up the record sales. Not yet at least.
After starting the set with many 'old' songs they starting digging up the new tracks which all went down well, except possibly Salvation which just sounded messy. You could tell what they were trying to do but maybe it's a little bit too much for the stage. They'll need to figure out the best way to get the studio records to the stage, but they have always managed in the past. Some awesome 80's sounding bass pedals on two of the songs. New sounds!
Finishing the set with their new single, 'Gamer', which may well be the big hit they deserve. It's about staying up and playing computer games, specifically Half Life. It has kick arse game samples the whole way through it, it's mega violent and they swear loudly in the middle, and it has a mega heavy angry edge to it. Exactly what you're average Triple J listener wants. Bring it on!
Alternative to Copyright
I'd do it, but I have a job...
This paper (in Adobe format) describes a replacement for the current model of purchasing copyrighted material. It assumes copyright will be impossible to enforce in the future and enforces copyright by withholding content.
Basically the system involves giving away some of the content (an album track, two chapters of a book, the pilot of a tv series etc.) and people donate money if they want to see the rest. When enough money has been donated, the rest of the content is released. This could work very well for mp3 albums (but is a major consumer mindset shift).
Stephen King (novelist) is currently implementing this novel by selling the beginning of his novel electronically and only releasing the rest of the novel if he gets enough sales. He previously tried to sell a full novel but the encryption was cracked and the novel had to be made freely available.
Bands and money
I would not be surprised if we begin to see a lot more bands just giving up on the recording industry all together and just playing live and selling their CDs, t-shirts etc at gigs. With a lot more radio stations playing MP3s from the net it probably won't be far from when bands won't need a record company to get the exposure they want. When you can get a pretty decent recording out of a $2000 computer and $400 piece of software, you don't need a studio to make a demo and stick it on the net.
It's an old topic but I'm beginning to see it happen. Less bands will become big, more small bands will be heard from. Maybe we'll be able to turn on a radio and hear a different good new song from a different band all day instead of the same old stuff from the few bands the radio station knows will work. Nah. Will never happen.
Deaf provide new way to bootleg concerts
I want one!
Check out this interesting article from The Age online, Bootleggers use hearing aid technology to tape concerts. Some venues in the US have provide the hearing impared with headphones which link via low range FM directly to the soundboard. This is an idea I had a couple of years back for a story which saw the legalising of bootlegging and the broadcasting of all concerts via short range FM. People would drive to the area of the gig and sit in thier cars and listen if they could not get a ticket. I even remember thinking the main reason for this starting was that gigs were too loud, so they just got rid of speakers all together and provided headphones to concert goers. Lots of bizare imagery of people moshing but nothing being heard by those who watched.